The interval between second vaccination doses and booster shots has been reduced for a third time in NSW, from four months to three months. Booster appointments will be available at all 40 of state's vaccination hubs. The ATAGI advice had originally been for an interval of six months between second jabs and boosters, but this has been brought forward due to the ongoing escalation of the Omicron surge.
Data from both overseas and from the Australian outbreak shows that while two doses of a vaccine is very effective protection against the Delta variant, the Omicron strain is more adept at evading the immunity provided by full vaccination. However, booster doses have been shown to significantly increase the immune response against Omicron. Several countries around the world have also similarly reduced the interval between second and third doses of a vaccine in response to the Omicron wave.
Australia’s vaccination rollout was widely criticised in 2021 for being too slow, to which prime minister Scott Morrison famously responded, “It’s not a race”. However, with the arrival of the Delta strain in mid-June of last year, the need to increase vaccination levels was made a priority. However, because of short supplies of the Pfizer vaccine and discouraging advice from ATAGI about extremely rare side effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine, many people aged under 40 – the demographic that has been most infected by the Omicron surge – did not access the vaccine until the final quarter of 2021, meaning many younger people in NSW have not yet been eligible for a booster.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said that moving the interval forward would allow an additional 3 million people in NSW to access their booster dose.